The Wisconsin Department of Transportation said the highway was closed in both directions around 9:30 a.m.

WISN 12 News reporter Abe Lubetkin said several dozen vehicles were moved from the highway to nearby parking lots, and traffic was beginning to flow just before noon Tuesday.

Kate Eastman and her 12-year-old granddaughter, Julia, were en route to the airport to take a flight back to Florida.

"One minute, you're driving along, and the next minute, the guy in front of you is hitting the brakes," Kate Eastman said.

She said she couldn't avoid crashing.

"(It) spun us around, and we ended up facing the opposite direction, which saved our lives actually, because the semi behind us would have gone right through us, and the one behind, him, too," she said.

"It was terrifying. It was so scary to see them like coming at you and knowing that they could hit you," Julia Eastman said.

They made it -- shaken but uninjured -- to a nearby parking lot, where tow companies arrived to haul numerous vehicles that were damaged in the series of crashes.

"People have got to learn to slow down (in) heavy snow, white out conditions, because the roads do get slippery," said Paul Kohlman, who was helping direct traffic.

That's a lesson Melissa Poulsen learned with her coworkers who were driving from Appleton to Waukesha when they narrowly avoided becoming part of one crash.

"We unfortunately saw a lady spin out in a minivan, and she went sideways in the highway, so we had to go around her. And then another vehicle went off into a ditch, so we started slowing down immediately after that," Poulsen said.

Authorities continue to ask drivers to avoid the area until the significant traffic backups begin to ease.

Tuesday afternoon, Highway 41 northbound in Oshkosh was closed for several hours because of another multivehicle crash.

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